My top 10 pens of 2013

On December 31, 2012, I have done up a list of my top 10 pens of the year which you can read here. I will do a similar list for 2013, except that I did not manage to get it out in time to post it within 2013 itself, so it ended up being posted this year!

The 2013 list will take a slightly different angle from the previous one. Pen acquisition has not been superfluous, which is good news for my bank account but bad news for my hobby! I will feature my top ten most used pens for the year.

Yes, I’ve included 2 non-fountain pens in the list, and a calligraphy (Pilot Parallel) pen, which some argue is not considered a fountain pen. Other than the non-fountain pens, I have arranged them in order of length, so that no pen bias occurs! It is also very difficult to quantify how much I have used each pen in 2013 to be able to list them out in the right order, so no order is the best solution!

This is unfortunately the only fountain pen in the list that has been reviewed, and it goes to show how behind I am in terms of posting fountain pen reviews! Anyhows, I use this pen quite a bit because I love the fineness of the Japanese F nib, which feels really more like an EF. Though small, it is able to fit well in my hand enough to write really comfortably – my friend even expressed surprise that I did not need to post the cap in order to hold it.

Waterman vintage flex

Waterman Vintage Flex Pen

This is a nice gift from a fellow vintage-pen lover friend of mine. I honestly didn’t expect to receive this nice little pen as a gift, but here it is, in my possession! I used it a fair bit during my language classes to take down notes, interchanging it with the Nova Pen (below), and to scribble some flex calligraphy when I was bored. The pen is fitted with a Waterman Ideal nib. The flexibility is somewhere between a semi-flex and a wet noodle, so I’m pretty happy with it!

This is another pen of Japanese make, and I love Japanese pens because of the engineering precision and the beautiful designs. This, though, is not the most beautiful of pens, but rather looks quite simple and basic. Which is actually ideal for the beginning fountain pen user who doesn’t want to spend too much on a first fountain pen! The nib is fine (more like extra fine) and smooth, and the body is lightweight, making it a breeze to take notes with this pen.

The Nova Pen Company vintage Rose

The Nova Pen Company vintage Rose pen

I bought this pen on impulse actually. Browsing this site can be harmful to me, as I am just blown away by all the restored vintage pens that I could own for myself! My weakness is marbled designs, so when I saw this pen, I knew I had to have it. It is quite a rigid semi-flex, so I use it more for normal writing than for calligraphy. Used together with the Waterman vintage during my language lessons, it once leaked, probably due to shaking it around in my bag. I also have yet to find the most comfortable writing angle with this pen!

This has got to be one of my most favourite purchases so far. I got it at a discount thanks to a friend, after spending a long time trying to decide whether to buy the Sailor, Namiki, or Platinum music pen. I was really fascinated by the 3-tined system with 2 ink channels, and being a music person myself, I thought it would come to good use someday. I ended up buying the Platinum after much deliberation, because the line variation was the most attractive to me. This pen also comes in a special Koi patterned version, which is just awesome!

Danitrio HD-3 Screen Temaki Flowers

Danitrio HD-3 Screen Temaki Flowers Fountain Pen

Okay, I gotta admit, this pen has never been used, so it shouldn’t really belong to the list, bit I am just so tempted to write about it! The first time I saw the Danitrio Temaki collection, I thought this pen was really beautiful. I eyed it for a long time before forgetting about it briefly, only to find it delivered in the post from a friend on Christmas Eve! I really have awesome friends! I am a little reluctant to dirty this pen, so I am still considering whether to ink it at all or not. But the nib looks so tasty…

I played quite a bit with the 4 Zig Brushables Brush Pens that I bought early this year. 4 pens which are double-ended with different colours on each end actually means 8 different brush colours, but this doesn’t stop me from wanting more! Take a look at the Zig Brushables collection and if you’re like me, you wouldn’t be able to resist getting some. Then, after getting some, you realise you don’t have enough colours. Then you buy more. Then you realise again that you need some other colours. Then you buy more. Then… it never ends!

When I first got this pen from the dealer in Singapore, it was not even named yet! You could say that I really fell in love with this Konrad… plus it doesn’t smell like the other Noodler’s pens! I got this and another blue-turquoise marbled one, both of which were not yet named. In the end the red one is called Forbidden City, while the blue-turquoise is called Marbled Marianas. Pretty cool names, eh? I got them with both the standard flex and non flex Noodler’s nibs, but I haven’t tried the non-flex yet. The flex nib feels the same as the Ahab which I have reviewed here.

I got these pens second-hand from a friend, and yes, I have all 4 sizes of the nib, but only featured one of them here. I have been playing with them occasionally, writing more with the smaller nib sizes as I am not yet used to the bigger nibs. These are long, thin, and light pens, great for calligraphy writing! And there’s that added benefit of exchanging inks to create colour gradients/mixtures, which I haven’t managed to try out yet…

Last but not least, I believe this pen is my most-used pen of the year! I used pretty low-quality and thin paper in the office, not suitable for fountain pens at all, so I use my favourite rollerball pens to write there. This one is also readily available in my office’s stationery cupboard, so I have them all over the place and available for my own use anytime. As you can see in my review of this pen, I really love it, so I don’t mind replacing my fountain pens with this sometimes…

Et voila, this concludes my top 10 pens of 2013! I’ll be looking forward to pen goodness in 2014!

What are you top/favourite pens of the year? Does anyone have the same pens in their list as mine?

I am the founder of this website.
Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time.
I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty.